OUR NORTHERN LETTER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Patea, February 6.

Otago Witness, Issue 2242, 18 February 1897, Page 20

OUR NORTHERN LETTER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Patea, February 6.

THE LYING PAKEHA SPIRIT. Onoe upou a time, when the present borough of Patea was called Carlyle, aud the wild Maoris, or rather the noble copper-skinned patriots of the soil, were defending their hearths and homes and native lauds against the pakeha, interloper, and all the national music of the papa 6un-hill* (rapuki) had changed for the tierce warhke cries "Ate, *ke. ake !" and the graceful steps of the haka had given place to violent miuuets, and the wooing and the paddles, the pigs and the rewia had become swallowed up in warpaint and the roar of musketry, and all the kindliness in the native heart had become engulfed in stealthy bitter hatred, ami the pure pipe of peace was smeared in sanguinary gore, aud the blue skies "were black with powder smoke aud the earth w»s drenched with a strange dark w*ip%ru — red, red ! and flowed from the veins of the Maori and pakeha, npilledTeach by the other — there came a great spirit and said : " Let there be peace between the white brother and the brown ! " Aud the brown answering, cried in anguish : "How can there be peace, great fluirit, whilst the white brother robs the b«jvm aud dtivps him from his native land ?" Soithe great spirit groaned and wept, and then said : " Behold, O Maori, I will made an end of that, and the lords of the soil shall no more be despoiled of their territory." So on that th«> Maori wept also for the pukeha blood he had spilled — a copious flood, and broke his spear and buri<ifl ('eephin greenstone mere-mere aud stone tomahawk, and fWfshed off the warpaint clean in UiePati'a River ; aud high up above, the southern bank thereof, upon the plateau of the p*pa, he mournfully laid side by side dead heroes — white and brown — of the Patea battlefields ; and the blue-b!ooded raDgatiras and the mighty fighting chiefs and the dread tohungas sent messages through the land, and all the aged wahines came to the burial grounds, aud the young maideos docked the heads of these aged mourners with mourning wre'iths of the virgin forest, and the cunning of the tribes gave them flint stones sharpeued four times twice told. And as all the singers of the hapus squatted around and sweetly and wildly crooned weird dirges, the old wahines opened with the flints from their bared arm* and breasts tears of blood, which flowed down as rivers upon tha graves of the dead pakeha and the dead Maori for days aud days ; and from that spot weeping willows and evening primroses rose up, till at last the huia — moat saored spirit of tho Maori people — came and built her nest there. Aud Carljle w«s charjged for "Patea, and the pakeha nil way 8 came and the pakeha ships came, and the great big monumental pakeha houses, which everybody even now wonders at, grew up to the sky in place of the Maori whareo, and the Maori went so that the " Kianga " that knew them knows them no more, and the young Maoris that yet remain say under their breath that the greab spirib of the war time was a lying pakeha spirit. PATJSA. The municipality of Patea lies about lOfb above the sea level, 66 miles south-east of New Plymouth, 184- norlh-west of Wellington, and 214 south-west of Napier. Its chief industries are the Western Packing Company, at Canville, on the eastern side of the river Patea, of which the manager is Mr O. W. Oldham, whom we find genial and ready to give all information, yet up to his eyes in biz — two shiploads are awaiting the anival of the Uuioa Company's liner;, which do all the company's work ; hides, tallow, and wool at the Pate* fellmongery, managed by Mr J. Murgatroyd, who travels all round as general manager to his larger establishment at Christchurch ; bricks at the Patea Steam Brick Works, uuder the able management of Mr J, White and five hands — a very snporior article for loot.l and oufcaide trade. Nearly opposite, on thft town side, we find aa old friend, Captain Gibbons (late of the steamer Waverley), manufacturing at his Patea Brewery sparkling ales iv wood and bottle, with stout a specialty. Around a corner, and up Egmonb street, is tho boob establishment of Mr C. A. Larcombe, whose chief care is as the cure of ho(u)1s, and who does a big geuw.l trade in town and country. Over the way Mr Michael Kelly, ho»t of the Albion Hotel, dees his beht to please and reuder all comfortable^and succeeds in the laudable efforts, too. Besides all these, Patea has a borough council, county council, harbour board, two road boards, a hospital board to look after the sick and indigene, aud a cemetery board to ieo to the comtorb and convenience of the blessed dead. In the matter of friendly societies Patea has the Kilwinuing Lodge of Freemasons, the Star ot Egmont Druids, aud the Court A.O.F. Its flora is attended to by the Patea Horticultural Society, its fun catered to by a score of clubs, whilst its spare coin is taken care of by the Banks of New Zealand, Australasia, and New South Wales Old Saint Nicholas is kept from the threshold by the joint aid of the Anglican, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic Churches, whilst the administration of the law is seen to by a full-blown S.M. and judge, assisted by a baker's dozen of the greab unpaid. The culture of the rising generation is attended to at the Patea, State School. From an artistic point of view Patea and surroundings have much worthy of note, chief features of which are its wild sea coast, the river cutting a deep indent there through ; the papa plateaux i surmounted by the beacon marks for tho mariners ; further back the villa-like residences of the weil-to-do, and right up, seemingly at the very head of Egmont street, the majestic mouutain himself, filling the earth and sky like an exaggerated pyramid of Egypt. The lands all around Patea and south as far as Waverley are as favourably situated and as richly endowed by Nature as any in New Zealand, whils Ibeciima'eis, with periodicUexceptions, equable, healthy, -and agreeable, the heat of midsummer being tempered by the cool sea breezes, and the winter frosts, are said to be of the mildest description. Small wonder then that fruit and flowers, grasse*, crops, and grain, sheep and cattle should flourish and thrive so well. But the architecture of the town is somewhat bewildering, especially in E^tnont street, where the business places rear skyward, structures bordering upon the stupendous, and fiive one

an idea of " boom " at some period of history now very remote. The bunks are big enough, and quite as imposing in comparison as those of Dutmlin, Cnristchurcb, or Auckland, whilst the lately erected buildings would nob be dwarfed in any of chose cities. The rooms, the accommodation, the — everything bub the biz. That is being waited for ! Meanwhile the watchers get neb — deliberately. Very! Patea was the reverse once. She was all biz and no room and little accommodation. But that was when the troops and the A.O 's and their booted and saddled officers had to be quartered, and before the railway came. Since the iron horse galloped into town the •• potato gob cooked" and a lot of other things b> siilc. FATEA EAST AND ITS HOMES. After olimbiti'g the hill road on the east side of the P*tea Bridge and getting capital views of the town, the river, the se% below, and the mountain above, you set your face eastward, and ruuniug th« msin road for two miles you pass the Htntely homos of Messrs Matthews, Oldham, Ad awn, Derritt Bros., and Syme<, on either side, :iml Uieu turning off to the left race up the ro id at ri>/bt angles to the main road leading to Little Turanaki, passing the fine landis and dwellings of Mt-sarn Davidson and Major Turner, and further back off the road, well situated on rising ground, that of Mr L. C. Deat h. The latter I touud busy getting in his crops of wheat and outs of 25 and eight acres respectively. His 12 acres rape look healthy; and his 1200 Lincolns, just shorn of a good clip, seem in tip-bop condition. Retracing our way for a mile, and ttking the by-lane to the left, we again go through a rich loamy country, pasting Mr J. Death's beautiful home on the left, Mr Jackson*, and thence on through thrao miles of well-grassed rolling country and down c. valley by ai old Maori pi, the local creamory, tho post omc« (( ffioered by Miss Williamson) and then across fche main roa»i again bo tho Whenuakuni Hotel, a capital wayside inn kept by Host Tasker, whose cheer, bt 3r, and board give satisfaction to all tho country round about. Then you scud back to Patea, and you have done a nice ride of some 20 mile*. J,AKE HEAD Some two miles from the town of Waverley, on tho soul'of-ra side of the main shellrock road, stands Lake Side, the well-appointed home of Mr George Death. His richly-endowed acreage of 850 aorea in worthy of note — on which 900 purebred Lincolus have found good livings all the year, and yielded the owner average clips of 101b. nnooKVAr.E. In Brookvale, two miles further north, Mr H/l. H. Wybourne has been singularly fortunaf.e iv h'u choice of a home. The situation is fine, the land rich and well adapted both for cropping and grazing purposes, as his 1200 Lincolns testify. Some capital ranrn from Mr William Wilson's stud stock at Elleslea yielded over 201b fleeces this season. HLM&r.KA. By invitation of its hospitable owner, bike &ad I vieifced Elleslea home and slud farm of Mr William Wilson, who showed me some thoroughbred horses, his rich pasture lands, and his 200 rams, the latter being the pride of the sheep-farmers and the prize-takers of all the ram fairs of Rmgitikei and Tarauaki. Hsre are three score of thorn penned and being cleaned — pisrfecfj beauties they are too. Forty guineas is no uncommon figure for one of these magnificent stud sheep. ME HENRY WYAI3ETT GOUOBR. A succession of agreeable surprj^eu meets one on entering Mr Gouger's modest home, which is hard by the main road, one mile north of the borough of Patea. After you have admired his 400 Leghorn fowls in the poultry ranch out' there Mr Gouger will take yan in aud perhaps cio you che honour, as he did me, of showing you the autograph letters to h;s late illustrious father — who, by the w&y, happened to have been the first Acfcing-gorernor of South Australia — of her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington (the Iron Duke), with ths origiual correspondence from fche afore-named perao»ages respecting the proclamation of South Australians a British colony. Mr Gouger hay also many other rare curiosities in his possession, but the handwriting of tho Iron Duke took my fancy most. A thousand guineas could not purchase thsvfe letter which I handled and read. II was onco handled and breathed upon by the Itou Duke ! — once so full of life and the emljlttzoimient of martial glory ; now so slill and siltnft nn-1 lcDoly !